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Andy
Overview Andy is a close friend and confidant to William, who is driven to exhaustion in his attempts, (and ultimate failure), to restore his accomplices mental stability, and his dedication to rebuild his friends peace of mind. Andy works as a fellow member of the ‘maintenance crew’ at the studio, where his friendship with William is expected to have blossomed, and is a foil for William, being of the same economic status and rank at the company. The two appear similar in most aspects, and revel in their shared camaraderie. However, unlike William, Andy is mentally sound, and is surprised by William’s maniacal outbursts and emotional delusions. He understands that William hallucinates and hears voices, but is uncertain how to deal with it, or rather how to prevent them. He tries his best to comfort his friend and to get him to wear a lucky charm around his neck, but this will ultimately result in little aid; as William continues to fall into mental instability and anguish, resulting in the murder of his lover. As well as being part of the maintenance crew, Andy can be seen taking part in certain group numbers within the studio gates alongside his sweet and niave lover, Drugstore Girl, such as 'Bulldog'. The two are often analysed as providing 'The Drowned Man's' only truly poignant and heart-warming romance, mainly untouched by the corruption that decays life both within and outside the studio gates. Appearance Andy wears plain, slightly off-coloured clothes similar to William’s, indicating of both their social class and lethargic and lack-lustered lives. Commonly, Andy is seen in a simple white t-shirt with a slight yellowish fray to it, occasionally held in place by brown braces that attach at the loops of his trousers. Andy wears frayed and garish beige trousers and simple brown shoes. His hair is often left to the styling of the performer. Loop - Basic - Dresses in room (Andy's Motel Room) - Table dance with William (Boardroom) - Followed by Badlands Jack (Town) - Chases Miguel over beds (Motel Room) - Dances on roofs with Miguel (Town) - Drugstore dance with Miguel (Drugstore) - Dances with Drugstore Girl in phone booth (Drugstore) - Locker dance (Bulldog) (Studio 5) - Drinks with William (Saloon) - Dances in trees with William (Woods) - Gives William his gris-gris (Woods) - Dances with and spurned by Faye (Outside Trailer) - Fights in trees with Badlands Jack (Outside Trailers) - Dances on bar (Saloon)/Does 1:1 (Badlands Jack's trailer) - Hoedown (Saloon) - Witnesses affair (Saloon) - Fight with Dwayne (Saloon) - Helps William at fountain (Town) - Goes a bit crazy and starts seeing things (Fountain) - Solo dance (Saloon) - Carried into tent by Miguel (Desert) Loop - Extended Andy is dressing in his room at the Motel when he hears William calling him. They go to the studio to do a shift of work, passing The Gatekeeper with a familiar nod. They enter the Boardroom and dance around the table as they clean it, Andy whistling along to the music. They twist and turn their bodies around each other and Andy supports William physically as he leaps around on top of the table. William starts to hear voices and Andy tries to calm him. William tries to get him to see the masks around them, to no avail. Eventually, as their dance becomes more frantic, Andy slams his hands on the table, shouting William's name. Stanford and Claude walk into the room, Stanford taking a seat at the table whilst Claude pays William and Andy. After their shift, they separate and Andy returns to his motel room to change out of his work clothes before heading into the motel yard and taking a seat to read a comic book. Suddenly Miguel flaps one of the sheets on the washing line into Andy's face and runs through the motel. Andy chases him through the street outside but he is nowhere to be seen. Miguel appears from nowhere behind Andy and scales the top of William and Mary’s shack, running across the roof - Andy in hot pursuit. By the time they come down, Miguel has vanished again as Andy runs through the town in disbelief. Suddenly Miguel charges past and into the Drugstore. He dances in the window and tumbles to the floor. Miguel follows and they hustle and dance around the diner. Their battle is full of power, but without violence or malevolence. Andy falls back onto a swivel chair at the barber’s stall and Miguel stands over him. He performs a short hypnotic ritual with a gris-gris. He blows into his hands and a cloud of magic dust fills the air. Andy is blinded and bewitched. Miguel points over Andy's head, causing him to turn round, distracting him as he plucks a hair from his head. Miguel runs into a phone booth and slams the glass shutter behind him. The door is covered with flyers and adverts, blocking the view in. Andy shakes himself from his trance and rushes over to the booth. He pulls open the shutter, but Miguel has disappeared. Andy turns to Drugstore Girl, bemused. He relaxes and the two of them start to flirt and dance. They’re both weary and resigned to their lowly status, but for a moment they disappear into their own world. The daily grind of work is forgotten and they lose themselves in each other’s arms. Somehow they manage to dance inside one of the phone booths, and they pause and savour the moment before kissing. They move outside and dance around the fountain. They take off for Studio 5, cavorting along the way, and they burst through the doors of the studio as ‘I Love Marie’ by The Floridians plays over the speakers. They join the cast of actors starring in ‘Leader of the Pack’. After the shoot, Andy gives her the varsity jacket he wore for the scene. She wears it later as she zooms around town on her roller skates. William and Andy go to the Tavern and demand drinks from The Barman. They leave the bar and head into the forest just beyond the trailers. Andy tells William he'll catch him up, and spends a moment looking in Dwayne's trailer. From this distance he spots his friend circling and climbing the trees, slowly creeping round the back of Romola's trailer to join him. Together they dance through the tall, spectral trees, twisting around them. William becomes increasingly disoriented and distressed, and Andy gives him a talismanic necklace that he hopes will bring William good luck. William returns home and Andy walks alone through the woods. Badlands Jack turns up and greets Andy with a sarcastic snarl. He goads and then attacks him, kicking dirt in his face. They wrestle each other until they find themselves at a makeshift chapel. Jack is frightened by a straw man sitting on a chair and runs off. Andy recovers and walks to the back of the motel. He sits down beneath the lines of washing and flicks through a motorcycle magazine. Nearby is a trailer, the inside of which is entirely covered in moss, like ‘Nature turned inside out.’ Andy sees Faye dancing around Dwayne’s caravan and watches her longingly. He approaches her, but she spurns his advances. She isn’t interested and instead she asks after Dwayne. Andy tells her, even though he’s jealous of the big shot actor. Possibly he’s looking out for William and hoping that Faye will distract Dwayne from his affair with Mary. Faye leaves and Andy snoops around Dwayne’s trailer, drinking his liquor and stealing his money. He reads a love letter to Dwayne from Mary, and starts to worry again about William. He knows he has to protect his friend. He enters the Tavern, but it’s deserted. He climbs onto the bar and stamps out a slow rhythm with his cowboy boots, while holding a bottle of beer which he’s pinched. ‘24 Hours’ by Eddie Boyd plays on the jukebox as he loops his arms and legs through the metal pipes above the bar and hangs upside down, moving his torso to the music. Drugstore Girl is sitting nearby and she watches in awe. Suddenly, his joy is cut short as The Barman appears and threatens him with a baseball bat. The bar fills up as the hoedown party starts and Andy joins in the dancing. When the fighting breaks out he tries to help his friend, but The Barman restrains him. Andy leaves with William, both of them bloody and bruised. They wash their injuries at the fountain and William paces in circles, distressed. Andy follows him and tries to calm him down. William pushes his wedding ring, his watch, his house key into Andy's hands, circling the fountain between each one. Finally, Andy follows him round the fountain, back to the spot in which they started and William tries to hand Andy the necklace he gave him earlier and Andy resists. William and Andy tussle by the fountain, William finally shouting at his friend to leave him alone. Andy rushes into the drugstore, gathering bottles from the shelves, trying to concoct something to calm his friend. Each time Andy places a bottle on the counter, Drugstore Girl returns it to a shelf. Finally, she grabs Andy, holding his face and wrapping him into a hug. For a few moments he is pacified, until his eyes again move to the window, where he sees William running off into town. Andy breaks free of Drugstore Girl's embrace and charges towards the door, sending her rack of postcards flying on his way. He returns to the fountain and looks around urgently, calling William's name. Standing on the edge of the fountain, Andy plunges his head into the cold water, finally gasping for air. He starts to see the white masks looking at him and yells, ‘Keep away from me, you hear!’. Dancing through the pools of light he makes his way through town, slamming against the wall, convulsing on the floor. He races through the trailer park, diving around trees, into the saloon. Here, he swings from the light and collapses on the floor. He runs up the stairs and stops on the landing. His legs crawl up the wall and he hangs horizontally over the handrail. He arrives at the desert on the top floor. He continues his tormented dance, writhing like an animal. through the sand. Whispering to himself, and screaming at those he can see watching. There's a corrugated shed up ahead. He approaches and it appears to be a makeshift chapel. There’s a shrine in front of it, faced by rows of wooden chairs, and in the chairs sit thirteen scarecrows dressed in black. Their heads are made of white feathers and their eyes are peacock feathers. They’re watching the chapel like a scene from ‘The Dead Class’, a play from 1975 by the Polish director, Kantor. They also bring to mind T S Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’ from 1925 - ‘We are the hollow men. We are the stuffed men. Leaning together, headpiece filled with straw. Alas!’ Andy walks through the middle of the scarecrows and he sees Mary’s picture on the shrine. He collapses to the ground, as an incessant one-note musical drone plays in the background. Miguel is sitting motionless amongst the straw men. He gets up and tenderly cradles Andy in his arms. He carries him to his tent in the middle of the desert and leaves him stretched out, exhausted or dead. Andy lies still for several moments. Then suddenly he’s up and running again, back downstairs and dodging between the trees. Final Show Trivia Quotes '''Keep away from me, you hear!' - ''is bellowed at the white masks that surround him at the fountain is he begins to see the same 'delusions' that had dragged his closest friend into the mentality of murder. References When at the 'Scarecrow Funeral', Andy is initially startled by the straw confidants surrounding him. Here, they could be a reference to ‘The Dead Class’, a play from 1975 by the Polish director, Kantor. They also bring to mind T S Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’ from 1925 - ‘We are the hollow men. We are the stuffed men. Leaning together, headpiece filled with straw. Alas!’Category:Characters